Tuesday, 1 July 2008

Bra update

Thanks ever so much for all your excellent suggestions on the bra decorating front. Thank you slightly less for the knitted-beard-as-disguise idea. While I appreciate that you were intending to protect my modesty, I can't help thinking that donning instant whiskers (patent pending) may just have the effect of drawing MORE attention to myself. And even worse, I suspect things might get a bit warm and uncomfortable inside the beard after 13 miles.

Anyway, cracking swiftly on... and before I get onto the bra update I'd planned, I must share with you the very exciting news that has just dropped into my inbox: Working Mom Knits is holding a giveaway - in association with my bra-walk! Hurrah!! Do pop over and have a peek... it's over here. Thanks for thinking of me, WMK!

But now, I'm sure you're all desperate to know how the bra's coming along, yes? Well, the answer would be slooooowly, so I don't yet have any finished-article pics. What I do have is a series of snaps documenting phase one of the work-in-progress, which I shall be subtitling:

"VC's rather unsuccessful foray into fabric-dying"Before we kick off, I'll give you a hint about the moral of the story: it involves remembering to read all the instructions before you begin. And then following them.

My 'before' shot shows that things started off very well. I consulted the guidelines and got out everything I would need:

I'd splashed out on a new pair of marigolds, I'd bulked up my fabric weight by adding a pillowcase and some knickers to my bra, I'd laughed heartily at the man in baby-blue shorts pictured on the box of dye - I was ready.

Next up, I have a 'during' shot:

Here you can see my old yellow pillowcase starting to go green as the blue dye begins to take. You probably can't see the bra. That is because I had hidden it under the pillowcase so that I couldn't see it and get stressed out about how IT WASN'T CHANGING COLOUR!!

At this point, I was repeating a mantra along the lines of: "OK... so... don't panic... just keep 'agitating the fabric and forcing the dye through it', like it says in the instructions... it'll be fine... *panicky breathing*... why is it STILL NOT BLUE??"

And, well, it turns out that I should have read the fabric type on the bra label before I bought the dye, and taken into consideration that the polyester/nylon/elastene blend might not take the colour all that well. I did know that some fibres wouldn't really dye properly, but I seem to have adopted an attitude of blind optimism about the whole thing, and assumed that this bra would 'blue up' just fine, whatever dye I used.

In the end, it did work a little bit, albeit to varying degrees in different areas. So, here's my 'after' shot: one ever-so-slightly-blue-except-where-it's-still-white bra...

Soon after this shot was taken, I started sewing some bits on - but the fruits of my labours will have to wait until next time, I think. You'll like it, though. Really. The actual sewing may not be very good, but I feel that I had a very strong design vision. I drew sketches and everything. Oh yes - I've learned from my mistakes. No more winging it for this chicken: only proper planning and meticulous research from now on... or something like that, anyway ;o)

20 comments:

It's amazing how the dye won't take when you want it to but stick your sparkly new white bra in the wash with a pair of jeans (by mistake of course!) and it will suck up colour like a sponge giving you a nice bluish sludgy grey sparkly new bra!!

It's blue! It is - you'd pay a fortune for a bra that delicate shade of powder blue! Can't wait to see what you've done to it since then - some lamé perhaps? Some pompoms, ric-rac, glittery pipe cleaners?

I love the blue! I think the contrasting white looks reeeeeaaaal purtylike. Will you be artfully arranging swinging monkeys around your bra-covered area? I think the Smashie Army needs an outing and a nice stroll across Brizzle may be just the thing. Hmmmmm... perhaps they could have the beards??

I loved the dye and I think it was beautiful. You thought about some colourful beads to add some shinning to it? Go all Vegas with it! Friends, faith and a lot of courage will follow you, I'm sure. Good SunWalk!I found you through Working Mom Knits.

I stumbled upon Working Mom Knits blog and had to come check out the "bra" action. In perusing your lovely shade of blue I am thinking it needs some Carabou feathers. ALOT of Carabou feathers. And rhinestones to make it really high class, lots of bling! Good luck and I am going to try and figure out if an american can sponser you (I don't really understand the pound conversion thing).

hi, am new to your blog, just wanted to say good luck on your walk - the bra so far looks good - great colour - how about attaching different coloured thin ribbons all along the bottom edge - like a kind of fringe?! just a thought! had a peep at WMKs blog - great giveaway! what a lovely thing to do.

but first...i have to read backwards and find out what exactly is going on here...why bras are being dyed and knitted beards being considered to be worn (or not) with said dyed bras...and um...just generally what the heck is going on here!

but in the meantime: absolutely NO VC-WAQing shall take place, on my honor!!!!!!!! :)

Well being as it's blue and white, it looks like the sky, so I'm thinking of birds (lots of feathers) a rainbow made from quality street wrappers coming out of the side, sunshine (yellow face paint?) maybe an aeroplane or two... sorry, getting silly now.

I wish you tons and tons of luck and I can't wait to see the finished article. (I've just done some dying today and the colour runs like mad - it won't bleed blue with all the sweat will it?)

I came here through Michaela's blog. I wish you a high energy level and good spirit for your Sunday fundraising walk. Your bra is a delicate shade of porcelaine blue. How about naive embroidery in one or more contrasting colours? I am quite sure the final result will be astonishing.

That now looks like an Agent Provocateur number - it's lovely! I like katy's idea of nipple tassels. Then it's just a matter of perfecting the technique of swinging them in different directions at once whilst walking at the same time. Now that would be a spectacle.